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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25140661">Her Butler, Inherent</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinyo_Hi/pseuds/Shinyo_Hi'>Shinyo_Hi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Her Butler [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Demon Ciel Phantomhive, Demon Sebastian Michaelis, Inspired by Kuroshitsuji, Kuroshitsuji II | Black Butler II, Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler References, Multi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2017-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2017-09-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:08:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>14,503</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25140661</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinyo_Hi/pseuds/Shinyo_Hi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Her Butler [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1821151</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Her Butler, Inherent"</p><p>
  <strong>☽☉☾</strong>
</p><p>With a simple twist of the door knob, Waren enters his Master’s bedroom in preparation for awaking her. Only something is different about today. Yes. The moment he opens the door, a knife comes flying his way. Catching it between quick fingertips, he peers in the direction it came from. Leaning on a bedpost is the Lady, wide awake, seemingly ready for the day, and who is staring at Waren deadpan.</p><p>
  <em>Master, your aim has improved.</em>
</p><p>“You are awake early, my Lady.”</p><p>Waren pushes his tray into her room and places the thin silver knife on one of the new linens. He is careful in not tearing it. He lifts up a red glass tea bowl and begins pouring a new, fresh cup of tea for the Lady. <em>White Darjeeling tea</em>. Proper enough for her morning drink yet has a hint of sweetness. The pale golden color quickly fills the appointed teacup and a calming, frail scent accompanies it.</p><p>“The both of us know even this time would be too early for me to rise, Waren.”</p><p>The Lady moves her way from her bedpost, brandishing another knife. That sliver of silver is toyed in-between thin fingers. She approaches Waren as he sets down the ivory teapot. From what Waren takes, the Lady has cleaned herself up well. Besides the only thing being she hasn’t brushed her hair, she’s suited herself up appropriately. Doning a recently purchased navy overskirt, a matching blouse, and fair floral perfume. Suitable. Though no shoes must leave her feet cold as the patter of bare heels against the floor suggest.</p><p>“It shouldn’t be that much of a shock that I can sometimes take care of myself.”</p><p>Waren plucks the knife from the Lady’s grasp and replaces it with a saucer. Her features melt from humorous to serious.</p><p>“Your tea, my Lady.”</p><p>“Thank you,” says she as a sip is taken.</p><p>“Your schedule?”</p><p>The Lady shakes her head and moves toward a <em>Butler’s desk</em>. Typically the desk was meant for the Lord of the house and all the necessary records ─mainly financial and/or business─ were to be hold within and reserved for the highest ranking servant’s eyes only. However, years have passed and the Lady elected to move the piece of light furniture mistakenly polished dark in here of all places. Not the study or a parlor or another room where business is held. Here.</p><p>Following her suit, soon enough the two of them are back at square one. Waren holds again his Master’s tea but the Lady opens up the desk in order to riffle through the few remaining slips of parchment left.</p><p>“I know what’ll happen like they are the scars I bear. I am to be woken up. Breakfast. The seamstress arrives. A party begins. A party ends. Dinner for all. And the rest is a trip down a subconscious memory lane.”</p><p>The Lady finds whatever she is looking for and holds it up for Waren to see.</p><p>“Too bad I woke up myself and feel no need for breakfast.”</p><p>Waren takes the piece of parchment from between his Master’s fingertips and asks what it is. The Lady takes her tea back and moves her way toward her <em>Spinet desk </em>constructed from <em>English yew</em>.</p><p>“It’s something special for the guests tonight. Something sweet.”</p><p>Waren opens the envelope and removes a slip of white paper listing what seems to be ingredients for a dessert Waren surprisingly hasn’t heard of neither tried.</p><p>“<em>Zefir</em>?”</p><p>“It’s Russian. And it is a sweet.”</p><p>“You’d like for this to be served tonight? For the multitude of guests who the vast majority of will be adults?”</p><p>Sugar. Egg whites. Other necessities…</p><p>
  <em>Whoever said the Lady does nothing certainly would presume she was the one who chose this.</em>
</p><p>“If the lot bother to show up.”</p><p>The Lady sits at her desk and waits for Waren to set the recipe down. And he does. Maneuvering his way from his abandoned silver tray he appears beside the Lady. She looks up to him with what seems to be a puerile look.</p><p>“In the eyes of everyone else, Waren, I am a child. What better way to offer more evidence to that than have sweets be offered at a fancy event?”</p><p>Waren doesn’t answer. Instead the Butler picks up an ebony and gold embellished brush brought to the Lady from an old friend in order to begin combing away at her dark and fairly tangled hair. He would’ve sent himself off to do whatever means necessary, cleaning, watching closely over the other servants of this household to see how they perform their jobs, correcting their mistakes as they go along. It’s because Waren knows best out of the lot but as it is a rather important day for the Lady, Waren decided to take up grooming and make with an absolute rigor that she is presented best tonight.</p><p>The Lady is atypically active this morning, have dressed herself decently well before the dressmaker’s arrival without any aid of a servant. More specifically have risen before Waren came in to have her rise. It appears to him that with a straight posture and stiff shoulders that the Lady is anxious. As she has every right to be. As the antisocial individual she is, Waren feels as if he could relate to it. After all… Waren being <em>Him </em>has shown to have lived many months alone. The Lady sips at her tea as it’s still hot.</p><p>Gloved fingertips brush against the side of the Lady’s neck that will be hidden from public view as of today. It is on this, the left side of the Lady’s neck where a distinct thin yet jagged and once very deep line resides.</p><p>
  <em>Another day, another scar.</em>
</p><p>Nothing quite inhibits a person’s judgement as passion does. A person’s ultimate desire, in the Lady’s case: getting revenge on Shadensnare traitors, could be hindered useless as you send too much emotion into the act, blind judgement. Unfortunately his Young Master dealt with a harsh blow quite literally and figuratively when learning this.</p><p>As Waren focuses on his task at hand, his thoughts nearly returned to that night. However, Waren decides it is not the proper time to dawdle on such a subject and instead begins pinning curls against her head. Since there will be guests in her household, many of whom the Lady wouldn’t care about if it had been in her way setting this day up, Waren makes sure there are in their proper places and will hold no matter what course of rough action could ensue. Waren also makes a note to make sure that the servants are to be in their proper places and will behave no matter what action may arise.</p><p>
  <em>What kind of Shadensnare servant would openly behave improper? </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Accompanying the Lady on her walk throughout the halls of her house, Waren gives the maid the piece of parchment in order for her and Murugi to begin preparing that such course by merely gathering the materials and literally whipping up a sample batch. The Lady and her Butler ─mainly himself─ exchange words of what should be done to lighten the rather drab atmosphere of this manor’s first floor as that is the only place the guests are prohibited to be. Waren reassures his Master that he will do what is necessary in order for this place to seem imposing to the future guests this estate will receive.</p><p>Afterward, he escorts the Lady downstairs to a tea room mainly reserved for business in order for her to wait. By checking his pocket watch, Waren can see it is approximately two hours before the seamstress should appear so leaving his Young Master to tend to herself and to indulge herself in the tea, Waren begins his work. </p><p>Within the manor, it’s trading out the dark, unfavorable-to-the-human-eye drapes among the first floor with more a more cheerful, lighter shade of blue and decides to leave them open in order to allow the halls be welcomed by outside light. He takes careful attention to dusting, unsoiling the painting frames and heirlooms of which dot walls. Amid all the rooms, he scrubs away the dirt stains from the twins and occasionally checks on his Master in order to see if she needs anything. Each time she does not. He places flowers in each the vases, watering them as well so the area will have a fresh scent of the flora. Outside the house, Waren begins trimming the hedges around the estate that the guests will be passing by on their ways in, all the while knowing it will give them a chance to judge the Shadensnare household based on appearance as if there weren’t any possible other way in deciding if the night would be favorable or not. He plants new wine sprouts, sows seeds in windowsill boxes, and all of this takes him no time to accomplish. After all, no task is too monumental for Waren to perform. The only reason a task should be dwelled on is if you yearn for perfection. However, the Lady said do not dwell on “perfection” and to do only enough to please the eye.</p><p>When returning inside to check on the Lady and servants, his Young Master is not found in the bright tea room which is only attended by a grey shine. The tea abandoned but scent of his Lady fresh and from the tray a cup missing. As he follows his nose, he hears chatter coming from the direction of the kitchen and the Lady is one of those voices. Entering the room, the servants stand at attention and the Lady turns about. She has a tea cup of the <em>white Darjeeling </em>and is positioned against several crates holding a liquor Waren previously ordered in a somewhat high demand from the Lady’s businessman company in Japan in preparation for tonight.</p><p>
  <em>Well, aren’t you the active Miss today?</em>
</p><p>The chef asks Waren if what he has done is correct, meaning he has finished the first batch of said sweet. Waren looks to his Master who ushers him forward. Waren rolls up his sleeves in order to not get any ingredients from the surface on his rather dark clothing; this action makes the maid seemingly swoon and disappear from sight. He’ll never understand her reactions to his actions. Waren takes up one of the macaroon-esque sweets and sniffs it. The ingredients seem to be all there but Waren has no intention of eating one in order to figure that out.</p><p>“The Lady said they were edible,” says the chef.</p><p>Waren again glances over to the Lady; she has a smirk spread across her face. It is obvious she enjoyed the sweets or else she would have put her two-sense into the conversation. He smells the pastry within his fingers once more and nothing is too prominent, no ingredient stealing the show. Waren hears the twins run into the room before they could be scolded from their lack of help. The Lady leaves then, only slower with a sweet in hand.</p><p>
  <em>Oh, my, my. Again, quite the active Miss… sneaking the sweets.</em>
</p><p>It’s no trick she declined breakfast but Waren wants to believe she planned to indulge herself some of these desserts beforehand as the Lady always has another plan in mind, just as he often does. Waren leaves the cook and maid be, informing them to continue doing as they have been. He also tells the twins to bring crates up from the cool cellar in order to have them be ready to drink what’s inside. The seamstress will be here momentarily after all. And it’s time for the Lady to ready herself for that time approaching.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In a dimly lit parlor, Waren rests his hands on the Lady’s waist. Dark green drapes overlapping tall window panes have been shut in order to have complete privacy. In front of them is a mirror and in the reflection of it is a half dressed Lady and an unsaintly Butler. The Lady’s gaze is on no other than Waren himself. She glowers.</p><p>“Is it necessary,” the Lady questions.</p><p>“Is it?”</p><p>The Lady scoffs at Waren as one of her hands takes Waren’s wrist. Wrapping his arm across her, Waren notices her head drops and gaze instead focuses on the floor spanning beneath the ottoman she is standing on.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>I didn’t ask for reiteration…</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <em>You never do.</em>
</p><p>Waren brings his other arm around and hides the body the Lady so deeply hates from view. Only this is why she raises her head back up to look into the mirror.</p><p>“Would it be acceptable if I didn’t─”</p><p>“If I may, my Lady, everything accepted that goes on in this household would never be accepted in society. It’d be best to just let it happen.”</p><p>The Butler’s Master sighs and agrees.</p><p>Backing away, Waren picks up a vital thin piece of dark clothing. In his hands he holds it and molds it against his Master’s nude torso. Fleeting fingertips brush across the Lady’s skin, more soft than any petal. For the first few minutes of this normally awkward act, nothing is said. It is only when the contraption becomes tighter than what the Lady is accustomed to that she intakes a deep breath, straightens her posture, and speaks.</p><p>“Certainly wearing a corset could’ve been avoided.”</p><p>“Certainly, if you avoided eating so much <em>Zefir</em>, among other things.”</p><p>The Lady turns her head to glare at Waren.</p><p>“Don’t blame me for eating sweets!”</p><p>Waren turns her body around to the right angles and begins going again at his current duty.</p><p>“And if you didn’t wish for me to eat more, how come you ordered for Murugi to create too many instead of the lesser amount needed of <em>Zefir </em>if it’s mainly grown up men and women coming tonight?”</p><p>“Because guests appreciate diversity and after checking shops in high-favor towns, they have not sold them so it’s best to try out something new instead of bringing in a classic and boring them.”</p><p>
  <em>Anyone who ventures outside the house would understand so, my Lady.</em>
</p><p>“You surely sound like the life of the party. How many have you attended?”</p><p>“There should be no worry. I won’t spill out my tales of cavalier nights, there being too many to recount.”</p><p>“Talk of devil-may-care…”</p><p>Waren abruptly tightens the strings of the corset to the Lady’s mumble, only to earn a rough gasp from her. Hands go to her stomach and nearly the Lady falls backward onto Waren but he is able to catch her and keep her in place by pressing her against him and bringing her back onto her feet.</p><p>“That <em>talk </em>is everything I say, my Lady,” is what is whispered into her ear.</p><p>
  <em>Tightlacing isn’t much a high fashion trend as it once was, my Lady. I shan’t be the one to bring you a cosmetic modification to your body without your say-so, so consider this lucky compared to what once was.</em>
</p><p>The Lady manages to catch a breath and response with an unintelligible phrase before Waren hears the seamstress approach the room. Finishing up the loose ends of the strings, the Butler hands his Master a shawl to cover herself with, in particular her shoulders and chest. As the material settles on her skin and Waren takes his place across the room, in comes Madame Zaffre with bright red curls pinned away and a gown draped over one of the twins. With his face being covered, Waren cannot tell which it is.</p><p>“Oh! <em>La belle, Mademoiselle Shadensnare!</em>”</p><p>The Madame approaches the Lady and gives her an embrace as if they were two old companions reuniting after decades of separation. The Lady seems awkward but for a moment, Waren pays attention to the twin. His legs shake and on a whim, Waren calls out one of the twins names.</p><p>It is Garth.</p><p>After he answered and tried to move the dress from his eyes, he almost drops it. As this floor has been tread on by too many people, particularly the twins’ dirty work boots, Waren takes that as a reminder to clean it and goes over to him as quick as one would go and takes gently the gown from him, being sure to stand in front of him in order to hide their Master from his sight. The dress is lightweight, as is everything, and a near exact replica of what the original order had been.</p><p>“Would you mind joining the other servants in the kitchen? Carefully finish up fixing the food for tonight’s event carefully with the other servants?”</p><p>Garth turns confused, raising a finger as he about questions why Waren repeated himself but Waren scolds him.</p><p>“Will you do it?”</p><p>“Sir, yes, sir!”</p><p>And he disappears off through the halls, flinging bits of dirt from his trousers into the floor, reminding Waren yet again to clean the floors. Waren sighs and turns about as the Madame meets the widest false smile he could muster.</p><p>“<em>Non</em>. Where did the little one go? Oh! The best always run off." She sighs. "He is quite the lovely young one.”</p><p>The awkwardness of her lip bite and apparent sadness is distracted with Waren handing her the dress she made for the Lady and she takes this opportunity to be the time to recount the order and if the gown was the parchment. She holds it up high for the Lady to see but Waren’s young Master is not blind so she doesn’t need to hold it so close to her eyes. There is still enough light in this room for her to see so waren would warn her to back off if it’s a problem.</p><p>“A gown made with the finest zaffre-dyed fabric, imported from an unknown location in Northern Africa. Seemed to suit the needs of Lady Shadensnare. Must’ve been luck.”</p><p>
  <em>Must have been your Masozi, my Lady.</em>
</p><p>The Lady catches Waren’s gaze as they share a thought. It revolves around his. The seamstress seems to have taken good pride in her work, Waren realizes though the material color is not zaffre, cobalt however. A simple human mistake since the two colors are very similar in shade.</p><p>“Unusual for a young lady as yourself to request no embellishments. Many women in my parlor would love for there to be too much instead of too little, let alone none but then again I suppose this is no normal young lady nor day, now is it?”</p><p>“No,” the Lady grumbles.</p><p>It is obvious the seamstress struck something within the Lady as Waren can tell but it’d be best not to dwell on it as Waren in this society should have no place in this room, let alone interject in their conversation.</p><p>“Oh! <em>Je suis vieux, que sais-je?</em>”</p><p>
  <em>Surely you know enough, Madame.</em>
</p><p>“Waren.”</p><p>The Butler looks up to his Master.</p><p>“Could you check on the preparations? You’d like for the guests to have edible food, yes?”</p><p>“Of course. Excuse me, my Lady. Madame.”</p><p>As Waren leaves the room in order to do as the Lady asked of him, he can hear the Madame say, “Such a courteous gentleman.” To which Waren tends to be.</p><p>
  <em>How could one be a Shadensnare slave if not a courteous one?</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Part II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Entering the kitchen, Waren notices straightaway the work everyone has done. Many a tray of <em>Zefir </em>have been made, maybe too many. Waren sees Murugi with sleeves rolled up and hopefully his final mixture of a multi-berry puree, sugar, carrageenan, and egg whites. Based on what Waren observes, the confectionary has an apparent consistency to <em>Krembo </em>minus the chocolate-exterior. The colors are pale. White and an array of pastels due to puree hues. The smell is sweet which is good.</p><p>
  <em>If sweets are what the Lady strives for, this surely will please anyone with a tooth for it.</em>
</p><p>The maid and gardeners have emptied the crates of both <em>Baijiu </em>and less notably <em>Fenjiu </em>and left them to gradually increase from their cooled temperature to this room’s decently warm degree. Supposedly it has a similar experience to drinking Russian vodka, so Waren believes it will be a decent companion to the evening’s sweets. Small glasses have also been set out and with as much precision as she could muster, the maid lifts another box of said glasses from the lower pantry and transfers them to Garth.</p><p>
  <em>Good to see you’ve joined in the help.</em>
</p><p>As Waren goes to check the time on his pocketwatch, Garth stumbles toward him with the box. The rattling the dishes loud as he shakes. It’s as if he’s under pressure. So much so per usual he stumbles. And the box nearly hits the ground. But it doesn’t. Waren catches both the boy and box as they near the floor. Waren sighs.</p><p>
  <em>There’s nothing to make these people more agile, is there?</em>
</p><p>When Garth is standing still and Waren having placed the crate of glasses onto the ground safely, he asks, “Oi! Waren, why is it only sweets and alcohol today?”</p><p>“Whatever the Lady suggest is what we shall do. If she requests sweets, we make sweets. It may be traditional to eat real food rather than these,” Waren picks one up and inspects it, “things but it isn’t uncommon to enjoy such.”</p><p>The taste is to be light and clean on the tongue but Waren isn’t tempted so to try one himself. The drinks are to be served as the guests arrive and will most likely enjoy the lingering finish of the sweet spirit.</p><p>Waren leaves fellow servants to do his bidding and informs them of their final duties before being able to intermingle within the party comers. He must return back to his Master as they wouldn’t work well without the other.</p><p>Waren returns to the parlor where his Master and the Madame are, hearing strained gasps of the Lady inside. Sneaking around the corner, Waren sees the Madame telling the Lady to keep holding her breath until everything was said and done. Only, there are only half or so of the buttons in their set places. She needs hookless fasteners to be made so she can use them for her gowns. Courteous as he is said to be, Waren knocks and asks if he could be of help. Both the Lady and the Madame say, “Please.” Maneuvering his way between the Lady and the Madame, Waren takes ahold of the final pinch of dress.</p><p>
  <em>Best hold your breath or else, my Lady.</em>
</p><p>The moment the Lady inhales, is the moment when Waren buttons the remaining ones and is sure to take hold of the Lady’s waist again to ensure she does not fall when she does in fact attempt to breathe in. She doesn’t.</p><p>“Ah! Well, seems as if that is done.”</p><p>The Madame appears beside Waren, hand gliding over the material across the Lady’s side and stomach.</p><p>“Tight fit but at least I can begin fitting this skirt.”</p><p>The woman kneels and begins tapering the hem of the Lady’s new dress, occasionally standing up, looking from a distance, and returning to her previous position in order to continue. Eventually Waren decides it would be a fanciful idea if the curtains were opened. First the ones furthest from the two women since eyes do need to adjust, then the ones closer to them, then eventually a decent mellow light fills the entire tomb of an area. Yet after the time where eyes should be well adjusted to the light, the Lady keeps her shut off from the world. Waren decides she must be in thought and while the seamstress moves further up the dress, altering it until the skirt no longer needs to be fitted for the Lady’s body, Waren pinches out each candlelight flame that was lit in the once dark room.</p><p>“Such sleek design for a young lady in this day and age such as yourself in the wondrous color of zaffre,” the headmistress says, distracting Waren from his task. “Just as you asked, <em>Mademoiselle</em> <em>Shadensnare</em>.”</p><p>Again but mentally Waren corrects her mistake in hue. Waren’s eyesight can catch any inconsistency however. Missing stitchings and those crooked seams even professional seamstresses tend to make. The Lady then gasps. Waren looks closer to Madame Zaffre, noticing she’s managed to prick the Lady’s arm with a pin. Waren sighs, sets down the candelabra he had been deflaming, and goes then to the Lady, pressing a handkerchief gently on the reddening spot across pale flesh but applying as much necessary pressure in order to halt the bleeding and not stain the dress.</p><p>“Careful, Madame. There’s no need to injure your payer,” Waren says as he glances toward the Madame. “Your funds will be delivered in time with or without a blood down payment.”</p><p>The Madame nods, returning to her work as Waren steps away from the Lady. The Butler places the cloth back into his front breast pocket. Time passes and eventually both Waren and the seamstress complete their work. The Lady is draped from her shoulders to past her toes in quite the attractive gown. Regal or elegant could be words used to describe it. Something not too loose but not too tight though it is a wee bit too tight as there are some things humans can’t do right. Waren can see it by the way the material forms to the Lady’s chest and lower torso when she breathes in. Well, tries to. It’s surely not meant for someone who is currently wearing a corset. It’s something specifically not meant for a child. This momentarily angers Waren as the Lady may be many things, but she is not a child. Per usual, the rather obnoxious woman’s voice brings things back to reality and Waren begins focusing more on things.</p><p>“<em>Oui, oui. </em>That’s that. Lady Shadensnare is ready.”</p><p>“Thank you, Madame Zaffre. You’ll surely be hearing from us soon.”</p><p>“I’d best. The Shadensnares’ have always been fabulous customers, ever since I first fitted your mother. No older than sixteen, she was, and had a size 14” waist. One of the thinnest I’ve ever seen. And now here is Lady Shadensnare, <em>le petite fille! </em>So young, beautiful, hopefully eager to go out into the world and explore life.”</p><p>The Lady turns about, rolling her eyes at her comments. Waren understand her obvious irritability.</p><p>“Just be sure to that when she does explore the world that she comes to me for tips.”</p><p>“Will do, Madame. Shall I see you out?”</p><p>“<em>Non, non. </em>I’ll be alright, might find that young man who helped me when I first arrived. <em>Au Revoir!</em>”</p><p>Madame Zaffre blows each the Lady and Waren kisses, gestures awkward but equally relieved to when she was gone. Waren approaches the Lady, looking at her up and down in her new gown. The Lady bends down as much as she can.</p><p>“Gives me the chills to think about her having fancies for Garth.”</p><p>“What in all honest do you think,” Waren says, redirecting her attention back to the dress.</p><p>The Lady sighs as much she could as her gaze travels up and down her reflection. Waren senses disappointment but then again, the Lady doesn’t always have either a high interest in liking the fanciful things or the best taste in those favorable.</p><p>“I’m not sure I like this, Waren. I look like… another doll.”</p><p>Waren stands beside the Lady in the glass where she stares at herself but not in a good way. In a sort of glowering, depressing manner.</p><p>“Young Master, with permission I will tell what I see. I see the heir to the Shadensnare household, a young woman who drives men away with her poison, position and views, a person who endured much sorrow to reach this point in her life. I see no doll as dolls sit on mantle pieces, taking no part in daily activities until a child comes along and knocks the valued figure down from her high horse… Well, taking that into consideration, you were once, before it all, a doll.”</p><p>The Lady nudges Waren.</p><p>“I thought you were going to say something helpful as if to cheer me up.”</p><p>“Well, now you’ve told me to speak only truths just as you do. If I dare say you don’t look like a doll, would I not be lying then, my Lady?”</p><p>The Lady turns to Waren with a furrowed face. But Waren knows she cannot stay mad at him for long.</p><p>“As usual you’re right. What do I know? To everyone else I am a child. May as well be another doll for the night.”</p><p>
  <em>Oh, my Lady, how wrong you are…</em>
</p><p>“Guests will be coming in soon, Waren. I’d rather not be in here.”</p><p>Waren understands and eases his Master down from the ottoman. He warned the Lady previously that she should’ve waited to put on her shoes before the fitting as her feet will become more sore as the night progresses but her only option would be to wear none. Waren helped her put the shoes on when she said to because he must obey his Master.</p><p>
  <em>After all if a Shadensnare servant couldn’t hold his/her own, how could they be a good fit?</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maya from her high vantage point observes her guests mingle with the many who have arrived. They pooled into her home like sharks converging at the fresh remains of a whale. Their jeweled and silken-draped bodies enveloping the floor as Maya unregrettably hides away above them. Her Butler is beside her, looking out as well. He watches over them from her balcony like a predator spying on preconceived prey. Maya would know that look. The evening will with hope go as plan with no hitches. This being the Shadensnare household however, something is bound to happen. That is their unfortunate curse.</p><p>Peering into the deep background of it all, Maya notices her servants standing idle as if they aren’t sure of what to do. Serve the guests or become one. Sending Waren off to check on things and to speak to the manor’s personal staff, Maya asks that she be given another moment's peace before returning to the supposed mayhem. Waren informs her that when his work is said and done he will look for her on the floor and urge her to speak with whichever guests he believes she should acquaint herself with. Then she is left alone.</p><p>A temper gradually growing in size due to the orchestra readying their instruments for the previous twenty minutes according to Waren, the incessant chatter in her ears that the guests provide, and the all in all fact that there is an event currently undergoing within her house that she didn’t wish to happen, let alone take part of, bugs Maya to the point of her wanting to escape into the trees surrounding her home once again. It for the longest time has been her safe haven, those lifeless yet living trees. She so easily could as no-one dramatically has noticed her absence. So surely she could. If only just for a moment…</p><p>Straightening her back, that’s what Maya decides to do. Only for a moment seclude herself within that moonlit forest. Breathing in as deep as she can due to this unfortunate miss-sized dress and the corset, Maya feels calmed. So much so with that thought in hand she moves herself away from the column hiding herself from the crowd and begins to walk toward the exit. Unfortunately for Maya, no such plan comes to play. What does is a following long moment of silence and Maya is taken from her party with someone with a perfume so breathtaking it steals Maya’s and long fingernails shielding her eyes from the world. Despite her kicks and muffles, Maya feels weak to the force of which overcame her due to her already lack of fresh air. The last thing to be heard is the first plucks of stringed harps.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leaving the kitchen with a fresh tray of <em>Zefir</em>, Waren approaches the Great Hall where all guests are situated with the exception of the immoral few who hide around corners in pairs. As he enters, he leaves the silver tray for all to see and indulge themselves on the goodies. Using the wall as a means of direction and being polite to not interrupt any futile conversations, to which there are none, Waren makes his way to the opposite end of this large area in order to meet with the fellow servants of the Shadensnare estate.</p><p>The dolt and often times rowdy cook is leaning against a column with singed hair slicked back with a too familiar a scented mousse. His outfit could have been more well prepared. With what Waren would bet is the only clean and not burnt apron Murugi currently has tied over a pair of black slacks, a starched white shirts, and coupled with not so recently polished shoes, it is averagely decent. The maid who has cleaned herself up rather nicely with even the addition of an onyx necklace worth of no importance to Waren has a teacup of Waren’s special brew of black tea and tangerines. Over one of her dark maid’s ensemble is also an apron but with the exception of a small tea stain at the upper left corner of the material due to her nervousness and clumsiness no doubt, causing her to spill a bit onto it. The twins are the best dressed yet not out of the previous ones. Their sleek suits pleasant to see but shoes otherwise the wrong choice concerning the evening. All things considered, the previous Butler who currently is balancing on a stool in the <em>Seiza </em>position with a hot cup of tea in hand and just enjoying the party as his dark eyes watch the passing individuals and head often tilting from side to side is dressed in a Butler’s uniform with dignity and style and is not being improper in any manner is the one who Waren can say is his favorite of the evening.</p><p>After scoping out their appearances and complimenting them ─earning a sigh from the maid─ Waren asks if each person remembers if they did what they were meant to do. Murugi remembering to clean up the kitchen after the day’s work of cooking. Nettie remembering to dust every vase and picture frame before allowing any guest to enter. Gard and Garth remembering to sweep up the pathway and plant the new flowers with the precision of Waren. Lea remembering to relax and enjoy the Sun. It seems as if everyone finished their jobs and that is why they are enjoy his tea right here and now or else they would be busting their butts in order to have them be done before Waren would notice. Murugi awkwardly states that they would’ve joined in with the guests earlier but none of them wanted to upset Waren so they stayed back where they are now until they asked if they would be able to.</p><p>Seeing the only issue tonight is the gardeners’ inability to accept the preconceived information that they should dress nice and behave well as they still have on their muddied work boots, Waren can find no fault what they’ve done as they have done what they were supposed to do to send them each off to bed. After all, as much as Waren would love to be, he won’t situate himself in within the crowd as nothing more than a man. Every person has the opportunity to have an enjoyable night so Waren disregards his personal feelings to allow them to wander freely as guests. This increases their excitement and the twins end up squeezing Waren’s legs as if to give him hugs. With so much as the monotone words, “Get off,” they do and apologize. Leaving aprons and teacups empty on a tray behind them, the four disperse within the crowd. Lea of course staying behind and raising the teapot toward Waren.</p><p>“No thank you, Sir. It’s all yours.”</p><p>This pleases the man and Waren leaves him be to drink all the tea he wishes. Looking up onto where previously the Lady and he had been situated, no sign of the Lady hiding or having been there for previous minutes are there. Waren is able to say it’s good for the Lady to have come down from the balcony, although conversely the possible outcomes of such a vast amount of unfamiliar people surrounding her aren’t favorable and as easily as the Duke could show up, a legitimate enemy could as well and sweep her off her feet.</p><p>With the intention of searching for her, discretely Waren peers over the crowd which isn’t difficult given his height however a woman catches attention on the well far side of this room. Waren had caught the end of her sentence, “… doesn’t surprise me we haven’t seen our event coordinator yet. Poor thing must have stage fright.” As he make his way over to the middle-aged woman wearing a ghastly yellow gown that clearly does not suit her, Waren focuses his hearing mainly onto her and another flaxen-haired woman’s conversation. Casually passing individuals by, Waren offers insincere apologies to those who touch him.</p><p>“Yes, I wish she would make attendance. After all, it has been months since anyone has seen the girl. Heavens knows what goes on in this place and what has her to live here secluded,” the woman sip at the <em>Baijiu </em>in a tall glass she must have personally received from the kitchen since those tall glasses weren’t originally available for the guests to have used tonight, “Surprised me too much after receiving an invitation. Believed it to be a bloody joke.”</p><p>“Maybe it is,” replies her mauve-gowned friend. “Who knows? She is nothing more than a child and could be playing games. Could not even had to been her that invited us. Could’ve been some bloke who wants what she has.”</p><p>Waren is all of halfway to meeting these women and is readying himself to ask them what all they meant of the things they said when in the corner of his vision, Nettie and plausibly Gard are seen dancing. Waren will not be subjected to interrupting their fun so he allows it to happen, even if they draw a crowd.</p><p>“It’s been more than a half hour, strings were played nought but ten minutes ago. Surely we should’ve been introduced to this mysterious girl, yes?”</p><p>“Of course. No party shouldn’t have their organizer not be present. Be a shame if something happened.”</p><p>“Like what?”</p><p>“You know the stories. Men coming here and running through the town later in the day in a frenzy attempting to put as much distance between them and Lady Shadensnare.”</p><p>“I prefer not listening to those stories. They aren’t my cup of tea. I stick to my own business.”</p><p>“Well this is my tea and I know for a fact that the Duke of Bulgaria left here screaming about a devil. Wouldn’t surprise me if the Lady made some enemies along the way from that dreadful day four years ago.”</p><p>Waren approaches the women and just as the hair-haired woman on his left asks, “What happened four years ago,” her tongue falters and steps back.</p><p>“Four years ago to the day,” Waren interjects, “the Duke and Lady Shadensnare were murdered, leaving the currently Lady alone to fend for herself.”</p><p>The other woman toys with a loose strand of her hair as Waren bows.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Madames, but I overheard your conversation and couldn’t be more interested to know more of it, these stories, your theories.”</p><p>The woman to his left replies, “Of course. Anything you’d like to hear.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Despite the harsh cough that comes from her mouth, when Maya opens her eyes, she notices the room is still, quiet. And dark. Only several slivers of gray light from outside have been able to slip through the shut drapes once her eyes adjust. She knows she is in her own home since those are the same drapes Waren brought here not but a month ago. Maya attempts to stand but it seems as if her legs are bound. Nevertheless, she continues to try. The restraints don’t feel coarse like rope but smooth, cold. Like a silky dress material.</p><p>“Well, my, my. You act such like a feisty little twit, don’t you?”</p><p>Maya glances up to notice someone opening the drapes and sauntering toward her through the streams of silver light. Her, apparently female, captor, who has taken hostage of her within her own home.</p><p>“Well,” Maya says. “It surprises me to see you again so soon,” the woman appears before Maya, loose brown hair framing a painted face, “Robin.”</p><p>“Why you gave me an invitation! Your Butler personally sent for me not but at dusk.”</p><p>Maya <em>hmphs</em>, hands curling within their silken bonds. Missus Fitzgerald, if that truly is her name as of late, begins to circle Maya as if she is prey. Hungry. Peering at her.</p><p>“I admit. You put up quite a good act. Acting like the lowly wife who just recently found out her partner was unfaithful, sending your children off elsewhere. It doesn’t surprise me if the average person believed that heartbreaking tale.”</p><p>The woman chuckles. In an abrupt manner, she kneels and takes ahold of Maya’s jaw and digs lengthy, uneven nails into her skin. Each pinprick hurts but Maya elects to ignore it as it feels like nothing of what she once endured. In the bottom of her vision, there is a glint of a pendant around Robin's neck. She elects to not pay attention to said useless trinket.</p><p>“Yes. Too bad though no-one will figure out who I really am.”</p><p>The woman’s eyes flash green, their blue slowly transforming into a murky lagoon. Maya smirks and tilts her head, forcing the woman’s nails to dig deeper into her flesh.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>So I was correct of her not being ‘Miss Fitzgerald’. Another unnatural being in my household? How oddly satisfying… and surprising.</em>
  </b>
</p><p>“How come you played for so long knowing he was unfaithful?”</p><p>The woman leers at Maya. Her nails dig further and by now have pierced Maya’s skin, fingertips wettened by blood.</p><p>“When you grow up─ No. If you grew up ever from this fragile state, and you should have by now, you would learn and understand how many lies a woman could tell, how innocent and devilish she can act toward someone or a group of people in order to achieve what she wants. Yes, I hated him for months. Our once fiery love washed away by roaring waves. I never minded though. Not soon after I found out I had a new love, one who treated me more fair than an heiress.”</p><p>The woman pulls Maya’s head up, invading the her personal space moreover with the woman’s questionable, intoxicating breath. The scent, more potent than any perfume Maya has ever taken in. More floral than the flowers in her garden, or were in if the twins had anything to do with the weeding. Maya reminds herself to check in the morning.</p><p>“He is a man who gives me unrequitable pleasure augmenting past the horizon of those waves that drowned out my previous affection.”</p><p>“Where is your man now,” Maya questions as she absentmindedly maneuvers a wrist from that weak bondage.</p><p>“Downstairs, of course.”</p><p>The woman seems to be oblivious to Maya’s attempting escape but then again, it isn’t as if Maya really want to make a ruckus of an escape.</p><p>“It would be rude to not be enjoying your provided festivities.”</p><p>Robin releases Maya’s face, returning to her feet and smooths the material of her gown out. Most likely the blood has stained her skin.</p><p>“Speaking of, I shall join my beloved in your exquisite get-together and have myself a damned delicious time before snatching you up and taking you off to <em>Him</em>.”</p><p>She produces dark gloves as she opens the door and exits into one of the hallways of Maya’s home before looking back.</p><p>“I’ll be sure to inform your Chayan of your whereabouts sometime soon. No worries. His issue will be discovering a mangled corpse of his beloved Master.”</p><p>Maya hears the indiscernible click of the lock. Silence encompasses Maya with its familiar embrace of pain while she remains sitting on her bound legs.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>‘Inform Chayan.’ As if he’d listen to another low creature like himself.</em>
  </b>
</p><p>Maya shifts in order to be lying on those waxed floorboards and facing upward, gaze unable to penetrate the darkness covering the ceiling even if there is plenty of light coming through the one window. Raising her free hands, Maya takes hold and removes the glove from her right one which exposes Waren’s mark. Though she cannot see the mark itself, Maya has the image of what is branded in her flesh burned within her mind and thoughts. Maya rests that hand across her chest.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>You’d best keep a steady eye out for the woman who you personally retrieved today and her guest.</em>
  </b>
</p><p>Maya keeps an eye on the surrounding darkness in preparation for the sight that reminds her of how closely linked she and her Butler are. Within moments not only does the familiar darkness dissipate and light become nothing but the room instead transitions into an ominous shade of red.</p><p>
  <em>Yes, my Lady.</em>
</p><p>Maya grins as she is greeted with the figure bound to her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Waren follows close behind his Master while they head down the staircase toward the guests, offering her his handkerchief in order to wipe away the small splotches of blood off her chin and dusting off her shoulders. Suggesting an inkling of perfume for her to put on in order to be rid of the musty smell, the Lady rejects this idea and says it would be best if she attended her own party, lest it be for nothing despite her rough opinion of it anyhow. Waren inspects the dark red material that was used to bind his Lady’s hands, either a scarf or sash to a woman’s skirt. This along with a salty scent narrows down the list of suspects in Waren’s mind as there are a select few who chose to wear red to this event.</p><p>Coming about halfway down the stairs, in his attentive peripheral vision he spots a red skirt disappear into a far off room. Politely, Waren sends his young Master down the hall toward the festivities. Only she asks him why he stopped. And stop he did. He easily catches up with the Lady however yet urges her to move more quickly herself. The Lady understands somewhat, returns Waren his handkerchief, and down the grand hall she goes, Waren knowing full well he should have accompanied that blue-adorned Lady like the good servant he ought to be yet instead goes to find the mystery woman.</p><p>Waren enters the room he believes he seen that vile woman enter. The train of the woman’s skirt matching the same out-of-fashion design and hue as the one he personally retrieved not but an hour ago. At first glance, the room is empty. However Waren believes what he seen so he knows she is here. After investigating every high corner and underneath every table, Waren hears a whistle.</p><p>“Hello.”</p><p>He turns, only to see her full-body surrendered on the displeasing oscillon-printed cabriole the Lady thought was a good idea having being left behind in this room during restorations. Her thick red skirt spilled over the cushions, pooling around the furniture like blood.</p><p>“My, my. Aren’t you the scrumptious stripling?”</p><p>The Butler walks to Miss Robin with all intent of throwing her out of this place with or without a heartbeat depending on her level of obedience.</p><p>“No need to be so quick, Chayan.”</p><p>Waren’s pace slows by a little to her name call but not enough for anyone to notice but himself.</p><p>“You’ll get me in due time.”</p><p>When Waren is nought but a foot or two from the woman, she rises from her leisure position, dark brown hair half-cloaking her face, she reaches out with a pale limb and takes ahold of Waren. She brings him down onto the furniture and sits on top of his legs, seemingly prevented him from being able to get out without toppling the woman onto the floor.</p><p>“Goodness, if only I’d known where this night would take a turn to.”</p><p>Miss Robin straightens to touch Waren’s face, tracing the curve on his jaw with her gloved hand. It’s then that beneath the material Waren senses a familiar aroma. Both the lustrous scent of his Master’s blood and the same floral scent he found on the Lady that is hypnotic to duller senses, overwhelming even. It seems too potent for a perfume yet too useless for anything else.</p><p>Dropping his gaze, Waren notices a familiar rubian pendant about her throat. Glancing lower, he sees there is a space around Miss Robin’s waist that could be missing a ribbon. Coincidentally the color matches. Perfectly.</p><p>
  <em>Furthermore proof she is the one…</em>
</p><p>“You’re in deep thought,” says this woman whose head is tilted like an astray pup.</p><p>“Indulge.”</p><p>“You must be declining somehow, must be in mental health or spirit because you did not exist in the Lady’s life till but a fortnight ago.”</p><p>“Thiis my life’s zenith, Chayan! Nothing has ever been as more exciting as these last few days. I have lived more than I have ever but I don’t need reason.”</p><p>
  <em>Well a nightmare to a man is but a dream to a woman.</em>
</p><p>Waren feels something within him, something afoul in the air. Yes, the evening so far has been so but this has something to do with his Master. This brings thoughts back to Miss Robin and her drugging the Lady somehow in order to just lock her within a room in her own house.</p><p>“Count your salad days, Miss. Your idiocy will come to end, I assure it.”</p><p>This woman’s painted lips form into a frown as she plays like a child, wrapping her arms around her as one would and sniffles.</p><p>“Oh, green in judgement, cold in blood… Don’t threat. We were just now having fun,” the woman says as she now fixes her skirts across his lap.</p><p>“You know, you are the finest representation of a mimetic individual, Chayan. The best proof of what you can offer up as a liar. You efficiently are able to mirror emotions and the actions of those around you to blend in. You dress the part to seem normal. You accomplish things us humans find mesmerizing with ease such as playing musical instruments so efficiently, the sound bewitches our ears. You act as a gentleman yet underneath that dank, dark suit I can place a bet of you being one devilish monster,” the woman shifts her hips into Waren with that. “Now how then can you say I am incorrect?”</p><p>The Butler stirs underneath the woman, not growing uncomfortable but annoyed as he needs to fetch his Master.</p><p>“Miss Robin,” as smooth as a ripple on water Waren moves from beneath the woman to the side of the couch she is positioned on, “I am afraid you still are mistaken. You see, how could one be the Butler of the Shadensnare household if he cannot do such things so simply?”</p><p>The woman looks at him in disbelief, more or less shock to be honest. As if no man has never succumbed to her charms.</p><p>“He wouldn’t be worth his salt, is my imaginative thought.”</p><p>Both Waren and the woman turn their attention to the doorway where the woman’s cad is situated, handling the Lady before yet to him. The Lady seems unimpressed with the man having a knife to her throat as they walk from that doorway to behind the couch some few feet behind the woman.</p><p>“Is that not correct, <em>Butler</em>?”</p><p>
  <em>Only you, my Lady, would be taken twice within the hour.</em>
</p><p>The Butler looks down to his Master’s face. He notices a partial area of her upper cheek is bruised, blotching her pale skin with an unpleasant purple. It takes the attention off the nail marks the woman gave her, only she will get what is to come to her as the woman made the Lady bleed.</p><p>“I suggest the idea you assaulted my Master and gave her that mark, Sir?”</p><p>The Butler gestures toward the Lady, only to release a chuckle from the man.</p><p>“She put up a good struggle. Worth a true penny when in the right hands.”</p><p>The man presses both the Lady into him and the knife into her flesh. The Lady’s hands are pressed against her, fingers wrapped around the man’s in attempt to push him away. The man smells the Lady’s dark hair, nose pressing into the strands.</p><p>
  <em>How unsightly to see someone touching my Young Master.</em>
</p><p>“What a fine sixpence. Just needs a little shining–”</p><p>“Remove this man from me.”</p><p>The man grins at Waren. Yet still the Butler bows.</p><p>“Of course, my Lady.”</p><p>Waren makes his move. This only though causes the man to jump back. The Butler’s eyes momentarily flash their unnatural shade as he pauses mid-stride.</p><p>“Come no closer, <em>Butler</em>, or the girl loses her head.”</p><p>The woman behind the Butler moves from the piece of furniture to near the man… but also not quite as she keeps a safe distance from the blade.</p><p>
  <em>It seems as if she may be wary of her own partner.</em>
</p><p>The Lady begins to laugh as she did not a day ago when the woman was in this very room, the cackle echoing in the vast ceilings.</p><p>“I’ve lost my head already, imbecile. Thoughts as ragged as whorehouse’s bedsheets, as jagged as this blade run rampage throughout it. Murder. Disobedience. Revenge. All in tune with tea cups and sea waves.”</p><p>Her laughs drowns out with a sigh. The Lady glances up at the three individuals in the room, leaving not but brief glances with her unwanted guests and lingers on Waren. What seems to be agitation festers within her eyes.</p><p>“And this wolf. Remove me from this man.”</p><p>“If I do that, my Lady, would you not be killed?”</p><p>“If you do not, would you be defying our contract?”</p><p>“That being so, would you prefer to be cut open by this madman who is in current league with a crazed wench?”</p><p>“I would prefer for you to not disobey our bargain by obeying a mortal man’s threat with a manmade blade.”</p><p>Waren merely stares at the Lady. The surrounding people are bemused to say the least but nothing of the man trembles with uncertainty to the Master and Butler’s bizarre discussion. She isn’t wrong though. Nothing manmade could mortally injure Waren but the last thing the Shadensnare Butler would want is for his Master to be hurt.</p><p>“I will not say it a third time.”</p><p>“No,” Waren scoffs. “But will you not properly ask me in the manner I’m sure I have taught you, my Lady?”</p><p>It is now the man begins to quake, in anger from what Waren picks up. The woman remains confused but nevertheless stands in her position. With the following silence and exchange in glances from the unwanted guests, and the Butler with his Master, the Lady finally exhales.</p><p>“<em>Wof</em>.”</p><p>“I’ve had enough of this,” the man hollers.</p><p>In the Butler’s sense, everything slows down. The Lady blinks her eyes. The man’s arm flexes in order to move the knife. The woman folds her hands across her torso. But it is Waren who is able to move much quicker than any of the three. Quicker than a half a second could be counted, Waren takes a hold of the man’s arm to his Young Master, brings her close to him and yet still allows the man to swing that blade.</p><p>What the other three beings now know if that the Lady is free, grasping onto her Butler’s arm that has wrapped itself around her in order to stay by him. And the man has sliced himself across his chest. Much force went behind it as it ripped through his clothing and pierced skin. The smell to Waren is unsanitary and though he has a side view of the wound, the few inch in length slice is jagged, droplets of blood deliberately come out of his injured muscles to stain his skin and surrounding material. The Lady stays still within the grasp of Waren instead of electing to remove herself, as if to recover from whiplash. The man has dropped the blade and the woman stares at the Lady as if she were the one who did something impossible. As the Young Master stares at the woman, Waren turns attention to the wounded man.</p><p>“As have I. Now I suggest you leave this manor in order to no longer upset this festive night my Master has spent some time preparing. If not, you will in fact lose your head.”</p><p>The man is still in shock as he nods, grasping his chest as if he cannot breathe but does in fact leave the area. Waren can tell the woman wants to but fear has her frozen in her place.</p><p>“Young Master, I suggest you return to the people. The guests will have drunk enough of the provided <em>Baijiu </em>to no longer care if their Host is missing. Perhaps you should eat something, some <em>Zefir </em>perhaps?”</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>Get rid of her.</em>
  </b>
</p><p>Waren removes his arm from her and the Lady looks once final time at the woman before moving away from him and the room all together. The woman begins to move as well but Waren has plans otherwise for her evening.</p><p>“Except for you.”</p><p>She halts. She trembles like leaves caught in a quick breeze, the free dark strands across her forehead buzz.</p><p>“Miss Robin.” This Butler ticks.</p><p>“You’ve taken advantage of my Master’s hospitality, wasted her valued resources, time. But what I cannot look past,” Waren saunters toward the woman who cowers herself into a corner and trembles in her skirts, “is that you have touched my young Master. No-one may touch the Lady except for myself. What sweetens this deal however…” Waren corners the woman and braces arms forged in steel around her, inhibiting her from leaving the confined space.</p><p>The devil within Waren stirs as the scent of a ripe soul beacons him. It’s all his for the taking, no demon is in his eyeline whom could take it. Yet he resists. Waren forged a contract with the Lady, stating Waren may take her soul when the deeds of death are done but to take no-one else’s. Though the scent pervades through Waren, the too tainted smell of the woman’s mildly befouled soul, Waren overpowers the demon within but remains in a deadlock gaze with burning eyes with the woman. It is very tempting, such temptation however one could never match the intensity of the hunger Waren feels for the Lady’s.</p><p>
  <em>What kind of Butler would break a clause in an already manufactured contract?</em>
</p><p>“…is that you have injured her, caused her to spill toothsome blood.”</p><p>The woman tilts her head as she seems stunned to these currents events.</p><p>“How would you–”</p><p>“I smell her her blood on your fingertips, beneath that glove behind your body. It may be a small scent, invisible to you but I seen the marks, I took into account you and only you had means alone with her. Before this evening my Master had no scars on her face now four curved cuts are, her blood under your nails… Do you understands what this means, Miss?”</p><p>Again the woman doesn’t understand and shakes her head.</p><p>“It means,” Waren bends his head down to her level and relishes for one more second in the temptation, her nervousness, and suspense, “no more you.”</p><p>In the quickest of movements Waren could perform and with hands as strong as steel arms tenfold, the Missus' head quickly points toward the corner wall and the fatal sound of that lovely, deathly crack of bones soon follows. The woman’s corpse crashes onto the recently polished floor, sea eyes overcoming with foam and saliva slowly draining from her painted mouth.</p><p>Waren feels a wee bit disgusted as now more work has to be done to clean up this woman’s troublings. That and it isn’t highly favorable in his opinion to wear stained clothing. It is both unpleasant to human eyes and his tolerance level dramatically changes. Waren will dispose of her body, return to the kitchen in order to cleanse himself in order to be presentable to the guests no matter how disorderly they may become with the substance of alcohol present. Even the most mature individuals will loosen a tie when drinks are offered. He will join his Master to watch over her then from any more mishaps concerning intoxicated guests. Then after all people are cheery and have had their full of fun, have left this manor in whatever array they wished, Waren and the other staff, mainly Waren will clean up the mess.</p><p>Waren rids the sash from his person and drops it onto the passed one whereas he wrenches the pendant from about the wench's lumpy neck to ─for the time being─ stow in his pocket. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maya takes up a drink as she desperately needs one to push away for a time the events that just occurred. The clear alcohol in Maya’s glass doesn’t sit well in her stomach but it’s clear her guests have been enjoying it. Their colorfully robed bodies swingly merrily. They all drank more than her and only several men and women are sane enough to stand still on their two feet. No-one cares to notice her. Everyone is inhibited but they are free to have a fine time.</p><p>Eventually Maya calms herself and turns to the crowd. They are dancing, no wild dancing, no, this is a fluid motion, smooth, and everyone is in sync. It’s mesmerizing but very suspicious. One moment ago they were rowdy, then after Maya took another drink the men and women seem calm, obedient. It is unsettling to her. But she doesn’t mind. Maya doesn’t understand how the adult mind works apparently according to those adults since she still has a somewhat small stature. But she does. And Maya knows more than and given adult could learn in their life.</p><p>Her senses are overtaken by a sickly sweet scent. The same as on the breath of a former captor. Maya swoons. As she witnesses many of her guests turn toward others, changing partners yet still dancing like wind-up toys, repetitive clockwork, ignoring her like grass in a field, she clutches at the table beside her and at her chest. Maya finds it difficult to breathe with no thanks to give to her tight dress.</p><p>Maya wants to exit the room but she falls onto her knees overtaken with a coughing fit. Maya doesn’t care for the clatter of a silver tray behind her she knocked over. And neither do any of the surrounding matrons and patrons caught in a supernatural spell. Maya stares up at a distant ceiling as she cannot breathe nor think but rolls over like an infant to crawl from the room into the hallway. She hopes distancing herself from the siren song will clear her head and lungs. This sensation is almost like dying in the hands of something you cannot predict nor stop, like drowning.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>Is this what… the mother and father felt as they died?</em>
  </b>
</p><p>Maya coughs continuously as she uses fragile arms to claw at the floor. She pushes that thought out of her mind as she sets a goal to exit this building, to escape this torture of a shaming death.</p><p><em>‘Little girl,’ </em>Maya hears in her head.</p><p>The voice wants to seem unfamiliar but Maya turns her lip up to the voice. It is familiar more than any guest here. Maya knows the voice belongs to a person who cast sorcery upon the minds of the individuals within her manor. Maya still treks forward. Her forearms burn by dragging them on the carpeted flooring. Each foot aching.</p><p>
  <em>‘Little girl.’</em>
</p><p>Maya grunts as she pulls her hurting body wracked with coughs. She needs to escape this place. That voice. She needs to go to the flower-bed to wake up.</p><p>
  <em>‘Stop.’</em>
</p><p>Maya does. She didn’t choose to halt her movements. It is as if there is an unseen force before Maya that caused her to stop. Her throat clears as do her lungs. All Maya does now is stay positioned on her stomach in this large hall, breath quaking, body waiting for its next command from the unknown entity.</p><p>
  <em>‘Stand.’</em>
</p><p>On frail legs, Maya does. It feels as if a phantom fingers lifted her from the ground by hooking them underneath her chin. She is bewildered to how as she herself couldn’t coak herself to previously. Hence why Maya crawled.</p><p>
  <em>‘Go.’</em>
</p><p>Stuck within her own mind, Maya has no choice but to dawdle as she makes her way from her home to whatever destination the voice orders for her to reach.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Waren exits the kitchen, refreshed after cleaning up and becoming the Butler again after disposing of the woman’s body, cautious ears pick up a woman’s voice who sings. He knows it certainly isn’t the Young Master. The voice has age, depth to it, a low pitch soothing and endearing and more than compassion can offer. The Butler has not witnessed one of these creatures for quite some time. And here one is now, a sea-maid. Waren rushes back into the ballroom to see many if not all the guests dancing in sync with the next. Waren finds his burning gaze resting upon a woman cloaked in loose gold and teal fabrics, raven hair cascading down her back reaching the tail end of her backbone structure yet the deep recessed eyes she has that peer out to the crowd are what Waren notices first. More specifically, their shade of silver. Her melodic voice does nothing to appease Waren’s being though.</p><p>
  <em>Will this household have ever a normal night? A simple evening of peace?</em>
</p><p>Sauntering his way through the crowd and over to the woman, Waren takes ahold of her throat, holding back the strength the Butler could muster to simply snap the vocal chords she treasures. Though the music stops, the guests do not. They continuously dance in perfect circles, unhibited men spinning their female counterparts at the correct times despite not knowing what they are doing. Waren looks to the creature who no doubt crawled her way from the ocean by the cliff. Her rocky eyes stare Waren down.</p><p>“The dance doesn’t stop,” the woman coquettishly states in a Grecian accent. “Not until my song ends, dear boy.”</p><p>“It will however once your life ends.”</p><p>Waren begins to use that stronger than steel strength to crush the creature’s windpipe. She makes a choking noise, then another, and one more before he decides there should be no fun. The Butler must get a job done.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>I can’t.</em>
  </b>
</p><p>Waren pauses to turns. The Lady is nowhere to be seen. No sight of the Young Master clothed in the blue gown. Waren can sense the Lady is close but how close isn’t positive. Along the side of the room however there is a mess of broken glass, spilt <em>Baijiu</em>, and an out of place tray.</p><p>“Wondering of where lies your… μικρό κουτάβι?”</p><p>Waren returns the gaze blazing with red toward the creature in the ever tightening grasp to which she smirks.</p><p>“Mmm. You wish to taste her. <em>He </em>will reach her first if the tides do not.”</p><p>Waren glares at the thing, silently angry, blistering with fury to the mere thought of other someone laying one of their sticky hands on his Young Master. Two people have already done that today.</p><p>“What right do you have to walk in this manor?”</p><p>“<em>He</em> was very persuasive. And simple. I charm everyone here while I spare one child, mute her ears and let her get away, in exchange for a full course meal of the finest available feast imaginable.”</p><p><b><em>You can’t make me! W</em></b> <strong><em>─</em></strong></p><p>As if a switch had been flipped within their connected minds, things go dark for Waren as the bond connecting the Lady’s thoughts is clipped as is the ability to feel her presence despite the sense being only dulled.</p><p>“What did you do with my young Master,” Waren growls.</p><p>The creature chuckles.</p><p>“If you wish to find out where the Lady is, you must find where rock kisses dainty flesh.”</p><p>The creature begins to manically laugh, grasping at her side as if the cackle ills her. Waren wishes to end this creature’s life here and now but it’ll only postpone his search for the Lady and her guests would be in limbo. The Lady is his top priority as it has been for these last few years so Waren will have to do away with this creature for the time being.</p><p>“Continue your tune but if you harm a hair of these attendees, you will die by my vicious hand.”</p><p>Waren release his hold on the creature and steps back. She stands up to gap at him and touches her throat with long fingernails, her bruising, no longer white but violet and gray throat.</p><p>“What will you do? Fetch her like she’s a bone?”</p><p>Waren turns about and moves his way from her. He will go outside and go to the cliffs. That is where her hints lead.</p><p>
  <b>‘Rock kisses flesh.’</b>
</p><p>
  <em>Somehow the Lady has been convinced to jump from the heights of the bluff.</em>
</p><p>Waren increases his already speedy pace and hears the creature began to sing her tune once more. It will be the last time for her. Waren’s senses are hit with the brackish scent that surrounds this place but also the remnant trail of the Lady. Her distinct perfume unique and branded into his mind. The faint aroma of her leads him to the bluff where his assumption were correct. He finds the ground disturbed and lost within the grass is a shining disk. Waren picks it up and sees a piece of red glass made into the shape of a reuleaux triangle. The shape is all too familiar but what it’s doing all the way out here Waren won’t know until he examines all the clues. He tucks the disk into his breast pocket as Waren also finds another vague yet familiar odor. Somehow, despite Waren disposing of her at the Lady’s command, the woman who assaulted and blemished her cheek was here. It peaks Waren’s interest but holds them off at bay as he jumps off the edge.</p><p>The moment Waren is submerged under the dark water, lightened only by white waves and clouds illuminated by moonlight above, the Butler catches an amorous whiff disturbed by the saltiness of the water belonging to his Master. The scent is below him, far below but no depth will keep him away. Waren swims down, clothes drenched and his skin now coated with the smell of salt. There are no air bubbles, seeming as if the Lady has either yet to release her breath or long ago her lungs gave way of it. Waren will reach her though.</p><p>Through foam and free-floating kelp, many meters below Waren sees a distinguishing blue against the muck. He goes down much further, nearly creating a current as he travels so quick, and at last Waren sees the Lady. He takes ahold of her chilling form, holds her body to him, and begins to move their way upward through the water. Waren kicks their way up through a school of nocturnal fish and eventually breaks the surface of chilly water. To a human’s touch anyhow. Waren become a buoy for his Young Master but once he notices his Master doesn’t immediately take in a deep breath, Waren uses a put aside ability to jump from their position beneath the water and land up onto the bluff, some meters away from any edge.</p><p>The Butler gently rests his Young Master down into the grass and looms over her. The Lady is pale again, water droplets sliding off her skin. Lips, the sockets of her eyes, even her fingertips tinged with the color of thistles. The four minor nail cuts and the bruise on her cheekbone are more defined, darker a color. Her chest lifts not which leads Waren to make her breathe. And when it begins barely lifting on its own accord does Waren lean a bit away and balance his weight on knees. She will need to be changed into new, warm, and fairly loose clothes soon. Besides these physical features, nothing else seems to be different of the Lady. Her soul still is there. Untouched.</p><p>
  <em>No. Something isn’t right…</em>
</p><p>Waren bends down and runs his nose along the Lady’s skin. On the Lady is the distinctable perfume he has smelt one too many times as of today. It is along her neck, her bare arms, on her clothing. They touched Waren’s Young Master again, and he thought he gave a justifiable warning. The Lady’s temperature is an unhealthy cool so Waren picks her up again and begins walking through the nighttime Valentine forest back to the manor with haste. Approaching her again left open bedroom window, Waren sees a familiar figure run away. Waren knows who it is and what they may want but the Butler is positive of one thing.</p><p>
  <em>They won’t have another touch of my Young Master again.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After having removed one remaining glove from the Lady's hand and Waren covering his Young Master with her thick blanket, the maid comes in. She had put her hair in a chignon in order to have it kept out of her face during the festivities downstairs but it has nearly come loose, dozens of strands frame her face. Unless she had been outside tending to horses, she must have been placed under that wretch’s spell. She has also rid herself of that gaudy necklace. Shaking hands holding dishes containing a warming beef broth and steaming tea for the Lady’s consumption come forward from the lit hallway into the darkened room. The liquids nearly escape the brim of their dishes due to her nervousness. Carefully the maid sets those items down on the Lady’s bedside table, carefully not to make a commotion that could wake their Master even though any commotion would be best in order for her to awaken. She brought them on behalf of Waren’s request.</p><p>“I thank you. The Lady should have something in her system.”</p><p>The maid presses the silver dish to herself, nodding.</p><p>“Yes. It’ll flush everything from Miss Maya. And warm her up too.”</p><p>Waren agrees. He should’ve changed the Lady out of her attire and dressed her in something other than a sea-soaked gown but Waren has other plans at the moment and someone needs to watch over the Lady in case she wakes up. In that case she’ll be given the liquids. Waren stands to go take up the chair in the corner of the room and move it to the Lady’s bedside.</p><p>Waren pauses and gloved hands grasp the chair’s crest. If he isn’t careful enough, he could splinter or break the piece but just as angry he is that numerous times tonight someone has interfered with the Lady’s well-being he is cautious. The maid looks at him, questioning.</p><p>“I understand this night has been confusing but stay by her side until I return. If she awakens, do what she says.”</p><p>The maid nods and moves past Waren to sit in the appointed chair. She rests the dish in her lap and wipes the free hair from her face.</p><p>“What will you do,” the maid asks.</p><p>Waren’s back is turned to her. Those drapes flanking the window ripple as they are caught within a breeze, matching the distant tides. The long length of his dark brown hair cloaks his eyes due to the Lady restricting him from cutting them yet don’t dare move across his face. Waren senses the person’s presence beyond these walls.</p><p>“I will be dismissing an unwanted someone. Personally.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Part II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Silently sauntering the Shadensnare grounds, Waren catches the man on the lookout for anyone. He smirks. Waren assumes the man doesn’t know what he is doing and instead is waiting for his partner and that is why Waren mustn’t brace himself for anything. Their plan is gone. Improvisation is all the man can rely on now. Waren halts behind the man whose attention is still focused on peering around the corner and bows.</p><p>“I’m sorry, sir.”</p><p>This startles the man and causes him to abruptly spin around. The man has been clutching his exposed chest. The good news for him is that the wound has stopped bleeding. Unfortunately the bad news for him is that the recent memory reminds Waren that he needs to be disposed of because that very cut would’ve been in his Master’s supple flesh.</p><p>“But I believe you were told to leave.”</p><p>This unnamed man smiles now.</p><p>“Why would I give up this golden opportunity, <em>Butler</em>? An advantage in the game plan?”</p><p>“Game plan,” Waren cocks his head.</p><p>“How so, sir?”</p><p>The man steps forward.</p><p>“Well, Miss Shadensnare… she has enemies, ones who could become benefactors to the right people.”</p><p>The man stops before Waren, looking up at him with eyes the shade of bole and gold.</p><p>
  <em>Yes, yes, the Lady’s lineage has acquired many an enemy; certainly none of this is new.</em>
</p><p>“And I am sensing you are one of the <em>right </em>people?”</p><p>The man grins.</p><p>“You, Butler. You are smart, smarter than any other manservant.”</p><p>The man breathes out his words, the same scent of a hybrid rose Waren smelt on the Young Master resides there. Waren inhales deeply, making absolutely sure of his assumption. He is correct.</p><p>“So you were the one who had my Master jump from the bluff?”</p><p>The man raises his hands; tiny inconspicuous indents on his wrists noticeable to Waren.</p><p>“Guilty as charged. You see, Robin and I, we went to <em>Him </em>together after being contacted with an inconspicuous grasp.  We were offered a deal worth our world, too much to pass up. How could we not act any part?”</p><p>“Your act dissolved.”</p><p>“It did. Because of you and your wit.”</p><p>“No. Your personas dissolved just because you were overconfident in the Lady not being intelligent. You were expecting a little girl unable to fend for herself, <em>sir</em>, were you not?”</p><p>“We… we hadn’t the slightest preparation for <em>you </em>to be in the mix.”</p><p>
  <em>It seems as if he is denying knowing your intelligence, my Lady.</em>
</p><p>“A mere Butler like myself should keep my Master out of harms way, even if the harm was from two mortals like yourselves.”</p><p>“I know about you, Chayan. How you would throw yourself in front of anything to protect her.”</p><p>“What kind of Butler would I be if I couldn’t do such?”</p><p>“No, what kind of creature are you that you would put your well-being in front of hers? She is a murderer in a long line of assassins and you could very well be next.”</p><p>As much as Waren would chuckle to this comment, he cannot as there is simply not enough threat for him to. The Lady would never be able to injury, let alone dispatch Waren as, again, no mortal weapon could injure him mortally.</p><p>“My partner was meant to capture her, of which she did, and afterward of this evening take her to <em>him</em>. We were so close. We surely would’ve achieved our goal if only you weren’t present.”</p><p>“If you are as vain as this, how come your lovely partner didn’t put up much of a fight? Surely the two of you are different so to say from other humans but you’re still human…”</p><p>“What are you saying? What did you do,” the man shouts.</p><p>“I merely disposed of a Shadensnare threat. And it didn’t help that she didn’t put up a fight as I do love the challenge.”</p><p>“You killed her. You killed an innocent woman.”</p><p>“Innocent? Perhaps not. After all, the two of you had a devious plan to rid me of my Master and─”</p><p>“You monster. I’ll make you pay!”</p><p>Consequently the man charges what little distance left in between them and attacks Waren. “Attack” being a weak word as the man repeatedly attempting to wound Waren leads to no avail. Waren is a dummy after all, feeling no pain. No mortal man can inflict pain or any devastating wound onto him lest what could he call himself? Mortal? The man exceptionally sweats as Waren has yet to bead a single drop after a following <em>Ke </em>amount of time. The man is tiring by the minute but Waren could continue fighting for days and yet this man’s eyes grown more and more lighter with a flaxen shade. The man clips Waren’s jaw with the boot of his heel, marveling but not injuring Waren to how he could kick so high. The Butler feels bored with the man’s petty, continuous, and useless pummeling as he hasn’t come to the realization Waren will not give up and exhaustion will be the death of him. Waren extends his grasp and takes a hold of the man’s head. Lifting the man’s yelling form up from the ground, he wriggles like a worm. Damp hands grasp at the sleeves of his suit.</p><p>Waren stares into the man’s eyes. As his partner’s did, the man’s soul appeals to the Butler’s senses. It waves invisible fingers toward Waren’s hunger. His soul, it’s Waren’s for the taking. And he’s so close. So close now, closer than the female earlier. There is a guttural hum escaping from Waren as his inner being wishes to sate the need. In the end, his fists slam together, creating a muted bang, blood, brains, and skin covering outstretched arms in a thin coat, the last ear-piercing sound another traitor of the Shadensnare name ricochets off the two flanking brick walls their quarrel took place within. The splash of his life-force spills directly beneath the man’s remains. It stains Waren’s shoes and trousers. Waren ticks his tongue as he drops the man.</p><p>“Sir, you’ve made a mess of me. The Lady gave me this attire.”</p><p>And with that Waren makes his way from the area outside toward the front door of the manor, attire soused. As the night wind blows about Waren, drying the sticky red liquid belonging to just a mortal man, a check is in place within his mind.</p><p>Waren must wash his clothes now. Stained with a dead man’s life. The Butler mustn’t let the Lady see his state. Waren ponders the thought of a child’s reaction to the sight of blood. The Lady knowing what she does most likely would leave her unaffected by the unpleasant sight. It’s unsanitary. Yes, he must wash them soon and quickly. He cannot present a good image of the Shadensnare servants if his clothes are painted with red. However he must relocate his Master in preparation to other unwanted guests making an appearance. Two birds killed with one stone perhaps…</p><p>
  <em>What type of servant would disgrace the Master’s household by bearing an unsightly appearance? One would not be highly favored if his needs came before the Masters.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Upon returning to Maya’s quarters, the maid has fallen asleep and Murugi instead stands at the edge of the Lady’s bed. He watches as guard of the open windows. Head cap hiding dark hair reminiscent of Waren’s own, unfit curls having called his shoulders home. Cigar vapors surround his still form as a light sea breeze enters this room. Nodding to his fellow servants watchful stance, Waren approaches his Master to throw the blanket from her.</p><p>“Something has arisen. Tell the others in the morn the Young Master has went away on a visit.”</p><p>Murugi turns about, shielding a weapon once folded arms concealed.</p><p>“Of course, Waren. Should I ready anything for your travel?”</p><p>Pressing the Lady against him, Waren replies, “There’s no need for that. I’ll make the trip myself.”</p><p>Both Waren and Murugi exit the Lady’s room, leaving be the maid whom has fatigued herself by dancing a night away with a twin.</p><p>“I won’t ask about the blood,” Murugi gestures to Waren’s clothing, “but what should <em>I </em>do while the Lady and you are gone?”</p><p>The two gentlemen begin walking down the ever familiar staircase. With haste and care, Waren removes the coat in order to not disturb his Master.</p><p>“There is a mess outside accompanying <em>this</em>.”</p><p>Waren then hands the article to the servant behind him.</p><p>“I trust you’ll be able to dispose of it in <em>your own way</em>, but please wash this in white vinegar from the basement pantry and scrub ‘til you see no more crust. Then do it again.”</p><p>Approaching the entryway of this manor, Murugi opens the door slimed in scents of those previous guests for Waren as his arms still bear the Lady’s unconscious weight. Waren pauses at the threshold, careful to not hit a limb of the Lady’s against the frame.</p><p>“No-one here can know of what you’ll see outside, understand?”</p><p>Hesitant, Murugi nods and places a spare traveling coat ontop of the Lady. Waren then leaves him at the door.</p><p>During this night, Waren effortlessly travels to a location no doubt his Master will be safe at until the disaster of the event is scoured from the manor’s memory. It is a place with individuals who cannot lie to him or a brother-in-arms, so to speak. Years it may have been but odors and memories strong.</p><p>Waren glances toward the unconscious Lady in his arms, his Master whom of which was nearly taken by that creature. Her features overlaid with a purple hue, hair dried but knotted as always. There is still life in this individual or else Waren himself wouldn’t still be here. If she had died, Waren would’ve taken her soul before one of those Reapers could. Despite her goals not being reached he would’ve finished what contract they had by selfishness and greed or not. Waren glances up into the night, at the moon where its catenary grin remains white.</p><p>“Call it unjust, my Lady, but where I take you supposedly lived an old colleague of mine.”</p><p>In a not quite dangerous vicinity of London, Waren continues toward a location he can only speculate his Master will be safe in for the night as those servants back at the Shadensnare Manor do their duties. As for him, he will care for his ailed Lady. Whether it be for one night he spoon broth through chilled lips or stay with her throughout an involuntary rest to ensure she is kept warm.</p><p>
  <em>That is what a Butler does. And what this Butler shall do. </em>
</p>
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        <b>☽☉☾</b>
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